Tag Archives: Los Angels World Airports

If you believe its press releases, Los Angeles International Airport is No. 3 – behind only Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport. To give itself this lofty status, LAX focuses on the number of passengers it serves, about 64 million in 2012.

But that’s not necessarily the metric used by the industry. Airports Council International has its own list of the busiest airports in the United States, and Los Angeles is No. 5.

The Airports Council tracks aircraft movements – or the total number takeoffs and landings. LAX had 605,480 of those in 2012.